Dive Brief:

• Apple has created an official Instagram account to promote its long-running "Shot on iPhone" campaign, according to Ad Age's Creativity. The page already has over 350,000 followers. 
• One of the account's first posts was of a short film that opened with "hello" in black lettering on a white background — similar to the one that appears when a new iPhone is first turned on — followed by a montage of images and a soundtrack of contributors discussing the "magic of photography."
• The Instagram effort is the latest addition to the "Shot on iPhone" campaign, which is mainly out-of-home billboards, print posters and short ads for TV and online featuring photos taken by iPhone users. Apple is encouraging followers to share the hashtag #ShotoniPhone along with their best pics to join in on the conversation. 

Dive Insight:

Instagram seems a natural fit for Apple since the iPhone has pioneered the social sharing of glossy, high-res pictures that look more and more like professional photography as smartphone camera technology improves. Apple is notorious for its insularity and hesistance to engage with other tech companies — Facebook owns Instagram, for example — but the growing power of social channels for marketing purposes is making them harder to resist for major brands. 

One likely reason for Apple's change of heart is that Instagram, a visually-oriented platform, is a ripe marketing channel for influencer content and user-generated content (UGC) created by the 700 million people who use the platform on a monthly basis. Apple is clearly trying to encourage more of that UGC with the promotion of the #ShotoniPhone hashtag displayed prominently in its bio.

While outdoor advertising and TV spots create awareness around Apple's Shot on iPhone effort, Instagram allows Apple fans to directly engage with the brand on a platform where they are more often spending their time